Loudon Wainwright III

 ((Troubadour; 147 capacity; $ 15))

By TODD EVERETT

Well, that's not exactly true. Forty-eight years old and with a son (the protagonist of 1975's "Rufus Is a Tit Man") who's on the verge of releasing his own album, Wainwright seems more than a little concerned with the effects of aging.
 

Promoted inhouse. Reviewed Jan. 11, 1996. Promoting his 15th album -- and third for Charisma/Virgin -- in 25 years, Loudon Wainwright III looked and felt right at home at the Troubadour, glancing around the old folk music mecca and reminiscing about the night in 1972 (it was a James Taylor show) when he drank several white Russians, vomited in the balcony "... and groped Danny O'Keefe's girlfriend." Chances are that O'Keefe has a new girlfriend (or wife) by now, but Wainwright doesn't seem to have changed a bit. He remains, however, folk music's resident smart aleck, with a unique, gleefully manic delivery.

Thursday's 90-minute set included several songs from "Grown Man," the new album, most impressively the title song ("You'll be his princess," he advises a girl on the verge of romance, "just remember, his mother is queen") and "I Wish I Was a Lesbian," a more graphic follow-up -- from a woman's point of view -- to Jill Sobule's recent "I Kissed a Girl."

At his best, Wainwright's wry tales require no relevant experience to comprehend -- you don't have to be a parent to appreciate "Be Careful, There's a Baby in the House"-- though some songs require explanation. A tale (and subsequent song) about finding an alcoholic guitarist in a London park seemed to be leading somewhere, but didn't. More successful was another new one, "What Gives?" decrying nostalgia for past-their-prime rock stars --"...Gerry has a pacemaker."

Succumbing fairly cheerfully to audience requests, Wainwright pulled out a few old numbers, though not his biggest hit, "Dead Skunk." As an encore, he performed "A Man Is Just a Handful of Dust," a quiet song written in a '50s folk idiom by his father, best known as a Life magazine essayist.